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It can be demoralizing to step back and ask yourself if what you do at work provides real value. And when you feel pressure to perform heroics to meet an arbitr

by jaden 7y ago

It can be demoralizing to step back and ask yourself if what you do at work provides real value. And when you feel pressure to perform heroics to meet an arbitrary deadline, burnout is a real possibility. It's important make sure you're not sacrificing your wellbeing for the benefit of the company. Your physical and mental health are far too important.

rlabrecque 7y ago
Whew, this hits close to home.
Consultant32452 7y ago
Years ago I sort of arbitrarily decided I'm willing to give 2 heroic week(end)s per year. Once I started putting up boundaries and enforcing them, I was suddenly seen as much more valuable. Promotions, more money. Human psychology is really weird.
- scottlocklin 7y ago
  It's pretty straight forward: scarcity implies value. It works on all levels of human relationships. FWIIW the inverse is also true: after doubling my consulting rate a couple of times, I found I was treated much better.
pmiller2 7y ago
I’ve been there. Now, I’m working on something that is at least interesting, useful, and not fundamentally evil, while at the same time I rarely leave the office after about 6 and the deadlines are reasonable. The difference is night and day.
CalRobert 7y ago
"if what you do at work provides real value" My company makes things that are, I'd argue, a net good to the world (we help make stuff more secure) - but honestly I find myself struggling more and more to care about anything that isn't addressing the climate or democratic breakdown the world faces. Not rhetorical - genuine question: Does anyone else sit at their desk and think "but guys the ship is sinking, maybe we should worry about fixing the holes before we repaint the tennis court? guys? GUYS????" This is my problem really, not the company's, but I'm not sure what to do.
- taurath 7y ago
  My solution is to do one thing, one even very small thing a week to help the meta problems. Writing letters to reps or calling, picking up trash around my neighborhood, or making some care packs for homeless people are all things that don’t take very long, and the difference in feeling like I’m doing something about it vs not has been liberating.
- thinkingemote 7y ago
  I've had conversations about this with friends after choosing a similarly drastic change like that for myself. What stops them is a combination of inertia, money and life change. It's not a trivial thing to quit your job and work somewhere else. One major factor is that you will be taking a large pay cut and might have to move. For those with mortgages and family staying with their less fulfilling jobs makes more sense. for many people their family comes first. Another issue is that the grass always appears greener. I do wonder what an engineer at Facebook would tell themselves, I think it might increase empathy with workers who are in places which are being labeled as morally bankrupt. I have some idea but that if they did share their thoughts they would get downvoted and hated for exposing themselves.
  - CalRobert 7y ago
    I've mentioned it around here before, but I think this is the oft-unseen problem with artificially created scarcities (especially housing scarcities from NIMBYs). Say you've got 10 people. 5 of them want to do (noble but lower paying thing) and 5 and want to do (meh to possibly sketchy high-paying thing). If there are 10 homes, that's fine. Maybe the noble ones have simpler, less fancy houses, but they're still basically OK. They still have the basics of life. "I can do something good for humanity and forego some luxury" is something a lot of people might think. If there are 5 homes, then only the ones who do sketch work can have them. "I can do something good for humanity and be homeless" is something far fewer people think. This applies to other things where a person might want to voluntarily take in less income (couple with one person doing childcare, taking a career break to learn a new thing, etc.) and it's why creating these fake shortages sucks so much out of the human experience - you have to justify your endeavors in terms of the lost income, and how they'll affect your competitiveness.
eeZah7Ux 7y ago
> It can be demoralizing to step back and ask yourself if what you do at work provides real value Not asking the question is much worse. A lot of burnout comes from the unspoken/unconscious perception that your work is meaningless.
- eeZah7Ux 7y ago
  The downvotes are telling...

by jaden 7y ago

rlabrecque 7y ago

Whew, this hits close to home.

Consultant32452 7y ago

Years ago I sort of arbitrarily decided I'm willing to give 2 heroic week(end)s per year. Once I started putting up boundaries and enforcing them, I was suddenly seen as much more valuable. Promotions, more money. Human psychology is really weird.

scottlocklin 7y ago
It's pretty straight forward: scarcity implies value. It works on all levels of human relationships. FWIIW the inverse is also true: after doubling my consulting rate a couple of times, I found I was treated much better.

pmiller2 7y ago

I’ve been there. Now, I’m working on something that is at least interesting, useful, and not fundamentally evil, while at the same time I rarely leave the office after about 6 and the deadlines are reasonable. The difference is night and day.

CalRobert 7y ago

"if what you do at work provides real value" My company makes things that are, I'd argue, a net good to the world (we help make stuff more secure) - but honestly I find myself struggling more and more to care about anything that isn't addressing the climate or democratic breakdown the world faces. Not rhetorical - genuine question: Does anyone else sit at their desk and think "but guys the ship is sinking, maybe we should worry about fixing the holes before we repaint the tennis court? guys? GUYS????" This is my problem really, not the company's, but I'm not sure what to do.

taurath 7y ago
My solution is to do one thing, one even very small thing a week to help the meta problems. Writing letters to reps or calling, picking up trash around my neighborhood, or making some care packs for homeless people are all things that don’t take very long, and the difference in feeling like I’m doing something about it vs not has been liberating.
thinkingemote 7y ago
I've had conversations about this with friends after choosing a similarly drastic change like that for myself. What stops them is a combination of inertia, money and life change. It's not a trivial thing to quit your job and work somewhere else. One major factor is that you will be taking a large pay cut and might have to move. For those with mortgages and family staying with their less fulfilling jobs makes more sense. for many people their family comes first. Another issue is that the grass always appears greener. I do wonder what an engineer at Facebook would tell themselves, I think it might increase empathy with workers who are in places which are being labeled as morally bankrupt. I have some idea but that if they did share their thoughts they would get downvoted and hated for exposing themselves.
- CalRobert 7y ago
  I've mentioned it around here before, but I think this is the oft-unseen problem with artificially created scarcities (especially housing scarcities from NIMBYs). Say you've got 10 people. 5 of them want to do (noble but lower paying thing) and 5 and want to do (meh to possibly sketchy high-paying thing). If there are 10 homes, that's fine. Maybe the noble ones have simpler, less fancy houses, but they're still basically OK. They still have the basics of life. "I can do something good for humanity and forego some luxury" is something a lot of people might think. If there are 5 homes, then only the ones who do sketch work can have them. "I can do something good for humanity and be homeless" is something far fewer people think. This applies to other things where a person might want to voluntarily take in less income (couple with one person doing childcare, taking a career break to learn a new thing, etc.) and it's why creating these fake shortages sucks so much out of the human experience - you have to justify your endeavors in terms of the lost income, and how they'll affect your competitiveness.

eeZah7Ux 7y ago

> It can be demoralizing to step back and ask yourself if what you do at work provides real value Not asking the question is much worse. A lot of burnout comes from the unspoken/unconscious perception that your work is meaningless.

eeZah7Ux 7y ago
The downvotes are telling...